For just pennies on the dollar, you can give your customers one of these free travel offers for just making a purchase, renewing their membership, referring a friend, or joining or your mailing list. How about enticing your customers to make a larger purchase by giving them not just one, but twenty of the most popular vacation destinations, which have been jammed-packed in our Lifetime Travel Book. An incredible $15,000 in value!

Or if you prefer, we’ll customize a travel offer just for you!

LifeTime Travel Book:

The LifeTime Travel Book is truly an amazing product. It is made up of 20 of the most popular travel offers. These travel offers never expire so the customer can take a trip every year for the rest of their life and never have to worry about the trips not being valid or the fees going up.

To redeem, the customer simply goes to www.LifeTimeTravelBook.com. Once on the site, they click the button called “Click Here To Register Now.” They will then enter their serial number and click “Continue.” From here, all they have to do is choose the travel offer they are interested in and then proceed to redeem that offer.

Please note that the Travel Incentive Program is built on upgrades. So in some instances, a customer may only pay taxes or boarding fees or some registration fees which is far cheaper then getting the whole trip and paying for it. But the company makes its money by booking each reservation over the phone and trying to then upgrade the customer from a two night stay to a four night stay or from an inside cruise cabin to a cabin with a view, from coach airfare to business class or from a standard vacation from one that includes car rentals, excursions, etc.

To learn about our travel partner please visit www.ClaimYourFunPlanetVacations.com and click on the testimonial button. There you will find 20 or so testimonials regarding the company and their travel program.

Travel has been around forever but there has never been a LifeTime Travel Book. The travel company, is really a travel agency that redeems the products in the LifeTime Travel book. An amazing statistic is that only 3% of the travel offers are redeemed exactly as offered. The other 97% choose some form of an upgrade – and that is how a travel company makes its money.

In the very near future our LifeTime Travel Book will be offered as a Fundraising opportunity for Non-Profits.

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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I represent Direct Strategies, Inc., a customer loyalty and incentive company located in Gilbert, AZ.

I’m sure you’d agree that most businesses in today’s economy must offer some type of incentive to retain and/or attract new customers. But the question arises… what type of incentive is best for you and what do your customers really want?

Marketing researcher, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin labels the cash discount as the worst incentive one can offer because offering $100 off is a straight cash loss to the business. And since many customers believe that you simply raised the price of the item or service and then offered the discount, they don’t feel as if they are really saving anything at all. Remember, Perceived Value Is Reality to your customer.

We offer very unique customer incentives; gas, grocery, retail, pharmacy, dining certificates that really work! Right now, the “Perceived Value” of gas (even though prices are lower) and groceries is extremely high. Discretionary income for material things like televisions, stereos, clothing, entertainment and more is dwindling every month in most households. And the cost of prescription medicine, especially for those without insurance, is causing families to make really tough health decisions, not always for the best.

Our Certificate Redemption Program is an incentive that will help your business bring in more customers and make more sales by allowing you to offer your customers up to $600 in gas, groceries, retail, pharmacy, dining purchases for a fraction of that cost.

You may have used a similar incentive in the past, providing gift cards to your customers or to employees as rewards. But you probably paid $25, $50, $100 or more for each and every gift card you gave away. Our program lets you pay pennies on the dollar and your customer will get a monthly $20 Visa debit card back on everyday purchases they’d make anyway … for up to 30 months.

These certificates are exclusive invitations from you to your customers, inviting them to participate in a rebate program -exclusive because customers cannot participate in the Rebate Program without one of these certificates!

Here’s how it works: Your customers can shop at the merchant of their choice. When they spend at least $100 per month and send in their receipts, they will receive a $20.00 Visa Debit Card that they can use anywhere Visa is accepted. They can even use it as part of the next month’s redemption. And offering a Visa Debit Card allows every one of your customers to participate in the program.

The Program has been used, with great success, by many companies all over the United States and Canada.

What can rebate certificates do for you?

• Retain Customers:   Promote the gas/grocery/retail/pharmacy/dining rebate program to your current database to help re-energize old customers.
• Attract New Customers:   Advertise this rebate program and attract new customers for your products or services.
• Avoid Costly Deep Discounted Sales and Loss Leaders:  Rather than deeply discounting your products or service or taking a loss to close sales with more customers, instead offer a rebate certificate with a face value of up to $600.00 for a fraction of the cost.
• Increase Lead Generation:   Give a $300.00 rebate certificate just for allowing you to provide a quote and see a sharp increase in sales leads.
• Gain a Competitive Edge:  Nearly everyone competes on price and customer service, so think “outside the box” and standout from your competitors. Offer significantly enhanced value to your product or service:   gas/grocery/retail/pharmacy/dining rebates.
• Motivate Employees:   Rebate certificates are ideal gifts to reward employee achievement and loyalty in a way that benefits them way more than it costs you! Increase productivity with happier employees and increased business.

Who are we exactly and why should you buy from us?

Direct Strategies, Inc. brokers the sale of certificates across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

Our long term focus is providing customer incentives to business clients that are looking for ways to increase their customer base as well as their bottom line.

Our redemption company has been in the incentive and Travel industry for over12 years.  The businesses using it have had tremendous results and exceptional growth.

They are a member, in good standing; of the Chamber of Commerce and are a BBB Accredited Business with a BBB Reliability Report of A with the Better Business Bureau.

Here are some final reasons why you should consider using our certificates:

- Visa Debit Cards are delivered in 4-6 weeks after receipts and vouchers are received and approved.

- Absolutely NO intrusive survey asking your customer how much money they make, how many miles are on their vehicle or if they own their home.

- A low registration fee of just $12.95 that is fully refundable in the last month of redemption (Model X). Your customer will get a $33.00 Visa Card the last month after their receipts are approved.

What sort of investment is required?

All certificates come in $100, $250, $300, $500, denominations.  Minimum purchase is 25 certificates. Volume discounts available.

Price list is available upon request.

These are perfect for all of your 2010 promotions, sales or rewards!

Only the Best,
Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”

http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com

http://incentivebasedpromotions.com

w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

P.S. We have businesses running ads that say “Get $1,000 in Gas and Groceries when your purchase totals $XXX.XX”. Since consumers can use ANY of our certificates simultaneously that type of ad sounds extremely appealing to potential customers. If that is of interest… just order an equal number of two different types of certificates and give one of each to your customers or our new (Ask me for details)

P.S. – Check out our full 2010 product line including our EXCLUSIVE SavingsBucks Product or our GiftCardBundle  TravelBook containing $15,000 is projected savings, see sites above.

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Use gas and grocery incentive certificates to:

·    in exchange for scheduling in-home sales demonstrations
·    get a customer lead to come in and hear your sales pitch
·    get new customers to sign up for new services
·    to get customers to extend the length of their service agreements
·    get dormant customers to order new or repeat services
·    encourage customers to make big purchases
·    as customer loyalty rewards for repeat business
·    reward customers who refer new customers to you.
·    to get more traffic for seasonal businesses (like landscaping) during off-months
·    to encourage customer spending during economic downturns
·    to attract big crowds for grand opening events
·    to create free advertising through a local media buzz
·    to win out over competitors who normally could undersell you
·    as the prize for employee sales competitions
·    to encourage employees to hit sales goals
·    as employee attendance or safety rewards
·    use a few certificates cards for your company’s vehicle fleet – everyone likes free gas, even you!

For Non-Profit Organizations:

·    to encourage higher donations during fundraising
·    as prizes for raffles or other contests
·    to generate attendance and sell more seats at seminars

As you can see, there are tons of ways to use gas and grocery incentive certificates.  A little creative thinking will take you a long way.  As a general rule of thumb, the trick is to find out what the key is to making a sale, then offer the gas and grocery incentive certificates to get customers to do just that.

Let me give you an example.  In automotive sales, for example, if you can get the customer behind the wheel for a test drive, the chances that they’ll buy the vehicle rises dramatically.  Knowing this, a car dealership in New York ordered 700 gas certificates, and offered them to customers during a weekend event in exchange for just coming in and taking a car for a test drive.  By 5:00 AM the morning of the event, they had people lined up outside the door.  By the end of the first day, they had to place an emergency phone call to order more gas certificates just to make it through the weekend.  The sales campaign worked so well, that dealership now orders 5,000 gas certificates per month on a regular basis.

If you try a gas or grocery incentive-based sales campaign, tinker with different approached and conditions for customers to get the incentive certificates.  Experiment and find the approach that works best for your particular business.

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE

First and most importantly, you HAVE to advertise a free gas and grocery promotion as much as possible. The purpose of free gas and grocery promotions is to get customers into your store who wouldn’t normally come, and to make purchases they wouldn’t otherwise make. If you DON’T advertise the free gas and grocery promotion adequately, what you’ll get instead are people who come to your store planning to make a purchase anyway, and consider the free gas or grocery certificates a pleasant, but unexpected, surprise bonus.

There are many ways to advertise. Blast emails are probably the cheapest. A direct mail campaign to a targeted audience is also effective. Finally, spend the money to place an advertisement where it will reach a large general audience, like an ad in the local newspaper or a commercial during the local news. The goal is to make as many people as possible aware of your free gas and grocery promotion.

BIG DEAL

You also have to make the deal sufficiently sensationalistic to turn heads. If, for example, you only offer a certificate for $50 worth of free gas if a customer makes a $1000 purchase, that’s not going to encourage very many people to come into your store. In general, the closer the values of the purchase and the free gas and grocery certificate are, the more people will respond. That same $50 free gas certificate, if offered in exchange for a $100 purchase, will generate more interest. A $500 free grocery certificate in exchange for a $1000 purchase will have the same effect. The ultimate is to offer a certificate equal to the amount of the purchase—for example, a $300 free gas certificate for a $300 purchase—because customers will see that as “free money”, and consider themselves fools not to take you up on the offer.

MEDIA MATTERS

If your free gas and grocery is sufficiently sensationalistic (such as in the last example mentioned above), it might generate enough interest to be newsworthy. Contact your local newspaper and television news program, and let them know about your sale. There’s always the chance they’ll have a slow news day, and decide to run an article or news report on your free gas or grocery promotion. This is essentially fantastic, free advertising. Even if your local media declines to do a spot on your promotion, you haven’t really lost anything—it takes almost no time or money to have made a phone call or mailed a letter.

FOLLOWUP AND FEEBBACK

Finally, make it as easy as possible for customers to collect on their free gas and grocery certificates. Your free gas and grocery campaign can backfire if the first round of certificate holders grumble to their friends that your promotion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be—or even a scam. That’s the kind of free advertising you DON’T want.

Instead, explain the redemption process to your customers in detail. Provide them with written instructions. Finally, purchase your free gas and grocery certificates from a redemption company that makes it simple and easy for certificate holders to get their free gas or groceries, with a minimum of conditions, restrictions, deadlines, or hoops for the customer to jump through.

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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Unfortunately, free gas and grocery promotions fall into this “too good to be true” category. If you tell a potential customer that, for example, if they buy a car you’ll give them a certificate for $500 worth of free gas, they are instantly suspicious and on their guard. Many will ask you what the catch is. Consequently, if you use free gas and grocery promotions, you have to know them backwards and forwards. You need to be able to explain to a customer, on a moment’s notice, exactly how the gas and grocery certificates work so thoroughly that they have no doubts left that the offer is indeed legitimate. To help you in that, this article will explain in detail just exactly how free gas and grocery promotions work.

First, you (the store owner) purchase a number of these free gas and/or grocery certificates from a redemption company. You buy them at a greatly discounted rate, paying “pennies on the dollar”. You then use these certificates as an incentive to get customers to buy your product or service.

The best analogy that you can use to explain the process to your customer are the mail-in rebates for items at electronics stores like Best Buy. The customer pays full price for the item, mails in the rebate receipt, and within a few weeks the company mail back a check for the rebate amount.

To use free gas and grocery promotions, the customer must:

1. Choose a gas station (for gas certificates) or grocery store (for grocery certificates) that they want to use their certificate with. They can choose any store they want, but then must always use the same store for the entire certificate redemption period.

2. Activate the free gas or grocery certificate, and state which store they plan to use it at. They can do this either online or through the mail.

3. The redemption company provides the customer a redemption coupon that is printable from the registration site (much like a mail-in rebate form) with the customer’s name, activation number, and month & year the coupon needs to be sent in on.

4. On the first day of the next month, the customer begins saving receipts of their gas and/or grocery purchases.

5. At the end of the month, the customer mails in the redemption coupon for that month and their receipts to the redemption company.

6. If their receipts show they have spent at LEAST $100 on gas or groceries that month at the store they previously selected, the redemption company will mail the customer a $25 VISA gift card which the customer may use anywhere.

7. They continue this process until the certificate amount is used up. For example, if they received a certificate for $100 in free gas, they can get $25 in free gas once a month for four months. If they get a certificate for $500 in free gas, they can get a gift card for $25 worth of gas once a month for 20 months ($25 per month x 20 months = $500.00).

That’s how it works. The customer does have a few hoops to jump through, and a deadline each month, but nothing unreasonable. If you explain this clearly enough to them, hopefully they’ll become convinced that your free gas or grocery promotion is legitimate. That builds customer trust—something worth its weight in gold in a competitive marketplace.

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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Given how successful free gas and grocery promotions have become as the world has fallen on economic hard times, you might be thinking on doing one of these promotions for your own business. You may quickly discover, however, that there are lots of redemption companies out there who will sell you the free gas and grocery redemption certificates and handle the processing for you. How do you know which company to buy from? What should you be looking for in these companies? How does one know how to shop for free gas and grocery certificates? This article will guide you through what to look for in a company, and what services might be worth paying a premium for.

Don’t be driven by the lowest price alone. There are many other important service factors to consider before choosing a supplier for your free gas and grocery certificates. The two main areas to examine are how easy it is for the customer to redeem the certificates, and how flexible the company is in working with you.

First and foremost, carefully examine the company’s process for customers to redeem their free gas and grocery certificates. Find the company that offers the simplest and easiest method for certificate redemption, with the fewest hoops the customer has to jump through. It is important to do the best you can to make sure your customers do indeed get the free stuff that motivated them to make a large purchase of your merchandise in the first place. Why? Because if they have difficultly collecting their free gas and groceries—and especially if they aren’t able to collect the full amount of their certificate—they’ll feel cheated, scammed, and complain about you to their friends. The last thing you want your company to have is a reputation for failing to deliver on promises and cheating customers.

Some redemption company’s certificates can only be used at certain stores, which may irritate some customers. Other certificates expire in unreasonable amounts of time. Some enforce strict deadlines that if the customer fails to meet, the certificate is forfeit. These are just some of the many terms, conditions, restrictions, and red tape some companies use in an attempt to prevent the customer from collecting the full amount. The customer, naturally, we be frustrated with the redemption company, but take their anger out on you for offering them a bum card.

When shopping for a redemption company to buy certificates from, look for one that has a relatively simple and easy process for collecting the free goods. Look for a company that lets the customer use the certificate at whatever store they want, issues cards that don’t expire, either reasonable or no activation deadlines, and comb the rules carefully and make sure there are no loopholes though which a customer’s certificate may be forfeited altogether.

As for your end, look for a company that’s flexible in working with you. You probably won’t find a redemption company that will give you one free trial certificate, or let you purchase only five or ten. Redemption companies make their profits by selling free gas and grocery cards in bulk. Some companies, however, offer amounts of certificates as low as 25, which provides you with an inexpensive way to do a “trial run” to see if this type of promotion works for your company. Look for redemption companies that offer cheaper per-certificate prices if you buy larger quantities.

Look for redemption companies that offer a wide variety of certificate amounts. The most common are amounts of $50, $100, $150, $250, $300, $450, and $500. Another benefit to look for is a company that will let you mix and match the card amounts in your bulk purchase. Finally, another great bonus to look for is a redemption company that will let you put your company logo on the free gas and grocery certificates. This simple thing can help you turn each certificate into a free advertisement reminding the customer that your company provided them with all that free stuff.

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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Happy New Year!

I am including a new article, “Perceived Value Is Reality”, sent
to me By my Broker that explains why our Gas & Grocery incentives
are something EVERY BUSINESS needs to understand during these very
tough economic times.

I am sending this to all subscribers on the Gas & Grocery Program.
I wanted to wish you a very Happy New Year and hope that
your Holiday Season has been a wonderful one. I know mine has been.

Perceived Value Is Reality
By Jason Lee Miller – Mon, 12/29/2008 – 12:26pm

Why incentives close sales and cash is trash

Closing the sale is a delicate and at times unpredictable process.
Consumers have varying reasons to reject or accept an offer and
often some incentive is necessary. But what kind of incentive is most
effective and brings the most return for the retailer? A discount?
A gift? Free shipping?

The impact and value of the word “free” shouldn’t be overlooked, but
neither should the cost of offering something for free. Especially,
though, retailers should consider what market researchers are
calling the “perceived value differential” or PVD for short.

On the consumer side, it’s pretty simple math and the goal is
straightforward: get the absolute most for my hard-earned money.
It’s far more complicated for the seller, who must develop a moneymaking
strategy via profits and loss equations or cease to do business at all.

Marketing researcher Dr. Flint McGlaughlin labels the cash discount
as the worst incentive one can offer. That’s a general statement,
and likely one not applicable to all situations, but it makes sense
on a few levels. Offering $10 off is a straight cash loss to the
retailer, and leaves that $10 out in the Wild West of commerce.
Better incentives would include a $10 gift card, where a customer
might spend more than that amount on a second purchase at the
retailer’s store, not another place.

Perceived Value Is Reality

For online purchases, it doesn’t take long for a consumer to weigh
a cash discount against the cost of shipping. It the shipping cost
is more than the discount, then the discount could mean very little.
Free shipping, by the way, has been cited repeatedly as the most
sought-after incentive by customers. It only works for the retailer,
though, if shipping costs can be worked into the overall pricing
scheme. It may only cost $4 to ship an item, or $20.

An important distinction there is the perceived value of shipping the
item. In all likelihood, the consumer is unaware of the actual cost
of shipping without knowing the weight, distance, courier, or bulk
shipping arrangements. But it is possible (even likely) the customer
perceives the cost of shipping is higher than a cash discount
offered elsewhere.

Let’s be honest about the ease of comparison-shopping online, while
we’re at it. The retailer’s goal is to bring the total cost of the
item down below what competitors offer. Perhaps your biggest
competitor offers the same product you do at $40, plus $10 shipping.
Perhaps that same competitor inflates shipping costs to make up for
a steeper, heavily promoted discount. If you could bring that total
cost somehow to $45, even if it means $45 price and free shipping,
you win.

Another incentive that carries perceived value is a free gift. The
MarketingExperiments.com study looked at offering a half-pound of
gourmet coffee with purchase versus a free steel thermos. There is
very little difference in the cost of the two items ($2 vs. $3),
but because the perceived value of the thermos ($15) is twice that
of the coffee($8), the PVD of the thermos ($12) brings back a higher
return on incentive(ROI).

We play this game in other economies as well. This very
recently-passed holiday season, recipients of a $25 restaurant
gift certificate needn’t know the giver paid only $2 for it during
a last-minute online promotion.

The recipient gets perceived (and real) value and gives the giver
much (perhaps disproportionate) thanks.

- – - – - – - – -
If you could give away gas and groceries would that increase the
number of subscribers, customers or sales you’d get?

Visit http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com

Contact me from the site and I will show you how!

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

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